Call your senators today and tell them that S. 1789 is simply not acceptable in its current form. The Senate will be considering this piece of legislation very soon, so it is essential that you call your senators and make sure your voice is heard!
When you call both of your senators, please ask them to support amendments to:
• Set strict service standards. (This is crucial, because the Postal Service is planning to degrade delivery standards in order to eliminate more than half of all mail processing facilities.)
• Allow the USPS to recover overpayments the Postal Service made to its retiree pension funds.
• Adequately address the requirement that forces the USPS to pre-fund future retiree health benefits. (This mandate is the primary cause of the agency’s financial crisis. No other government agency or private company bears this burden, which costs the USPS approximately $5.5 billion annually.)
• Establish new ways to generate revenue, such as providing notary services, issuing licenses, contracting with state and local agencies to provide services, and allowing the USPS to offer services that mail systems in many other countries provide, such as digital services.
• Prevent the closing of small post offices by giving the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) binding authority to prevent closures based on the effect on the community and employees.
• Protect six-day delivery.
• Eliminate the provision that would drastically reduce the compensation of workers who are injured on duty once they reach retirement age.
• Repeal the provision that would require arbitrators in postal contract negotiations to consider the financial health of the USPS. (Postal unions note that arbitrators routinely do so, and criticize the provision as an attempt to skew contract negotiations in favor of management.)
The Postal Service plans to close a many as 3,600 retail facilities is based on questionable data, Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) recently concluded. In a Dec. 23 advisory opinion, the PRC challenged the methods with which the Postal Service developed its “Retail Access Optimization Initiative,” charging that the USPS lacked sufficient data for determining which closures would reduce costs the most and that it lacked sufficient data and analysis to make the best decisions.
The government funding bill Congress approved over the weekend included a reprieve for the Postal Service: It delays until August the due date for the USPS to make a $5.5 billion payment to pre-fund healthcare benefits for future retirees. “We are pleased by the postponement, but we recognize the urgency of passing legislation that will correct the underlying cause of the Postal Service’s financial difficulties,” said APWU President Cliff Guffey.
Senator Sanders’s Bill Looks to Fix the Postal Service’s Financial Crisis
Senator Sanders’s bill would fix the current financial condition of the Postal Service by allowing the USPS to recover billions of dollars in overpayments made into postal retirement accounts in both the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) and the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). This piece of legislation would also protect six day delivery and mail processing facilities.
The dismantling of the postal service’s infrastructure and cutting days of delivery will do little to preserve the service standard needed by our economy, families and businesses.
Congressman Issa’s (R-CA) H.R. 2309 would be the first step toward ending Saturday service, stopping door to door delivery as we know it today and shuttering billions worth of post offices within two years.
What can you and your family do to help save the Postal Service? Call your member of the House of Representatives today and tell them to vote no on H.R. 2309! You can reach your member of Congress by calling the Capitol Hill switchboard today at (202) 224-3121.
http://www.apwu.org/news/webart/2011/11-125-senatebill-111102-bill.pdf
(Senate Bill)
http://www.apwu.org/news/webart/2011/11-124-dutyassignments-schedluler-111101.htm
Union Offers Online Scheduling Tool APWU Web News
The agency has struggled with a massive annual payment to pre-fund retiree health benefits imposed by Congress in 2006.
"Too many people still rely on the Postal Service, for us to sit back and allow it to collapse," said Lieberman, whose committee oversees the Postal Service.
Collins applauded provisions to protect six-day mail delivery for at least two years and transition older workers from disability compensation to retirement.